Belonging in Anghiari: Armida Kim

Belonging, Everyday Mysteries, Gift and Grace, Uncategorized

While I was staying in Anghiari at Christmas time, 2016-17, I began conducting interviews with people who live in the town. Some were conducted in Italian, some in English. They will all be posted in both languages.

Belonging in Anghiari: Armida Kim

 Cinzia and her daughters, Armida and Margherita, run the restaurant ‘Talozzi’ located in the heart of Anghiari. When I was invited to lunch there, Armida carefully explained dishes to me, how they had been prepared and the provenance of various ingredients. After the meal, I interviewed her and her mother. The interview with Armida was conducted in English, and was transcribed by Mirella Alessio who translated this edited version into Italian.

 I was born in Sansepolcro in 1993, and for the first few months of my life, my mum and I stayed here, in Anghiari, with my grandparents. Then we moved to Milan where my dad was working. After 3 years we came back. Until I was 16-17, we lived in the centre, in the most ancient part of Anghiari, where my grandparents lived, and then we moved to the countryside.armida 4

 I went to elementary and middle schools in Anghiari, but, then, for high school, I went to a school of art in Sansepolcro that specialised in textiles. And now I am now doing a 3 year European Bachelor of Science in Design in Sansepolcro. Actually … there is a funny thing here, because when I finished high school I won a prize to a University in Torino to study fashion design. I don’t quite know why I didn’t go…. I am very different from my family because they moved a lot, and… actually, I wanted to stay here. Also, the topic that I am studying is very important in this area. Continue reading Belonging in Anghiari: Armida Kim →

Belonging in Anghiari: Cinzia Talozzi

Belonging, Everyday Mysteries, Gift and Grace, Uncategorized

While I was staying in Anghiari at Christmas time, 2016-17, I began conducting interviews with people who live in the town. Some were conducted in Italian, some in English. They will all be posted in both languages. Here are two new posts – interviews with mother, Cinzia, and daughter, Armida.

Il senso di appartenenza ad Anghiari: Cinzia Talozzi

Con le figlie Armida e Margherita, Cinzia gestisce il suo ristorante che si trova nel cuore di Anghiari, al confine tra la città medievale e quella rinascimentale. Mi ha invitato da “Talozzi” e dopo un pranzo squisito che mi aveva preparato lei, l’ho intervistata insieme ad Armida. L’intervista con Cinzia, condotta in italiano, è stata trascritta e tradotta in inglese da Mirella Alessio e questa ne è una versione editata.

La mia è una storia particolare perché la mia famiglia non è di Anghiari… Comunque, io sono nata in un piccolo paese in provincia di Siena, che si chiama Buonconvento, un paese interessante, antico, dove si produce un vino ottimo, siamo vicino a Montalcino, al Brunello.20170108_124057_resized

Mio padre faceva il daziere, il daziere era l’esattore delle tasse. Nel 1969 fa un avanzamento di carriera e diventa direttore e viene a dirigere l’ufficio del dazio che era proprio qua, in Anghiari. Quindi io a 9 anni vengo trasferita qua con tutta la mia famiglia: la mia mamma, il mio babbo, la mia sorella e io.

Continue reading Belonging in Anghiari: Cinzia Talozzi →

Belonging in Anghiari: Carlo Rossi

Belonging, Everyday Mysteries, Time and Space, Uncategorized

While I was staying in Anghiari at Christmas time, 2016-17, I began conducting interviews with people who live in the town. Some were conducted in Italian, some in English. They will all be posted in both languages. Here is the first of these.

Il senso di appartenenza ad Anghiari: Carlo Rossi

Carlo, 54 anni, è un artista. L’ho intervistato nel suo studio nel centro medievale di Anghiari, in una gelida giornata di gennaio. L’intervista, condotta in italiano, è stata poi trascritta e tradotta in inglese da Mirella Alessio e questa ne è una versione editata.20170108_120449_resized_1

Praticamente…vivo nella casa dove sono nato, ancora vivo lì, dormo nel letto dove sono nato. Praticamente, dopo aver viaggiato tanto, sono tornato a casa ad abitare con i miei e quindi sono rimasto sempre con loro e ora ci sono io in quella casa e ci vivrò fino a quando non morirò.

Continue reading Belonging in Anghiari: Carlo Rossi →

Glory

Everyday Mysteries, Gift and Grace, Time and Space

‘They ran in that resonance which is the world itself and which cannot be spoken but only praised’ (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses).

I rode home last night through a bracing wind. It was coming up from the harbour when I crossed the bridge. The sun had just set behind the city buildings and the water was dark. Deep and blue, but only just.

The road leading up to Observatory Hill was dark too and the lights on passing bikes were bright in that darkness. It was hard to see and I was frightened, a little. Or tentative. The coming night held an animal grace that I did not. Elemental. And yet, there I was, riding in that alien beauty.

The Writing Life – Homage to Annie Dillard

Creativity, Everyday Mysteries, Gift and Grace, , , ,

One.

I found that things became a lot easier when I no longer expected to win. You abandon your masterpiece and sink into the real masterpiece  (Leonard Cohen)

Two.

In her book, The Writing Life, Annie Dillard talks about an American writer who has written a dozen major books over six decades. A book, she says, can take years to write. But this writer wrote one of his books, ‘a perfect novel, in three months. He still speaks of it, with awe, almost whispering. Who wants to offend the spirit that hands out such books’? (Dillard, The Writing Life, 13).

She describes the heroism it takes to write a book. The impossibility of the task and the humility required to meet it. ‘Courage utterly opposes the bold hope that this is such fine stuff that the work needs it, or the world. Courage, exhausted, stands on bare reality: this writing weakens the work. You must demolish the work and start over’ (Dillard, The Writing Life, 4).

The book, finally completed, conceived in your mind and constructed through your efforts doesn’t belong you. It never has. It came to you through an act of grace, unmerited. That it came to you at all is still a mystery. All you remember is the struggle, the awful daily struggle to find the words, the unease which remained with you from beginning to end: Can I do it? Can it be done? It was horrible. It almost killed you. It did, in fact, kill you and what was left in the wake of that devastation was the work, for which you are grateful. Continue reading The Writing Life – Homage to Annie Dillard →

Master woodworker

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This morning I visited Mastro Santi (Santi del Sere), a maestro in cabinet making and woodwork – in wood carving, inlaying, gilding, and restoring antique furniture. As one of only a handful of remaining artisans in this field, Mastro Santi is keeping alive a centuries’ old Anghiari tradition. (In future blogs, I hope to talk about other people who are keeping alive local traditions.) He also works in ceramics, and he is a member of a local group of musicians and singers who perform traditional songs, and he writes. (He has written a book about his own story in woodwork which gives a detailed account of his materials, tools and techniques. Other autobiographical writings are held in the national diary archive located in the nearby town of Pieve Santo Stefano.) Continue reading Master woodworker →

Sun, and fire

Belonging, Ecology, Everyday Mysteries, Gift and Grace, Uncategorized

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Yesterday, after days of very bleak weather, there was sun. Everyone I ran into, in shops, in the piazza, in the bar, said, ‘oggi c’è il sole!’ People were out and about, even if not pausing for long in the piazza, as the temperature was still well below zero. It was very likely to be the last day of sun before I left Anghiari, so I decided to go for a walk. (The weather has precluded the possibility of walking for some days now.) Continue reading Sun, and fire →

Dialogue in class

Belonging, Creativity, Gift and Grace, Teachers and Students

Towards the end of my teaching session last year I experimented with a dialogue in one of my classes. We had read Bohm earlier in the session and although most of the students expressed disagreement with him, they seemed really interested in the ideas. When it came time to discuss their relationship to their research projects (how they were feeling about their research practices and work habits, their topics, the ethics involved in doing their research) I decided to run the class like a dialogue group. I explained what we were going to do. They would each have a turn offering something about their current relationship to their projects; together we would draw out connections and extensions between everyone’s comments and write them up on the board; then the dialogue would begin. Continue reading Dialogue in class →